Affirm is not a genuine, empathetic employer in any way. I’m re-writing this review after Affirm attempted to have my account be blocked. My experience with them was so mentally and emotionally degrading that I am still picking up the pieces months after the fact. I have never experienced such a horrible result of employment, nor have I ever been subjected to such a horrible work environment in my life. There's a reason why so many 5-star reviews are extremely vague and nondescript, and why so many of the poor ones reflect the same sentiments.
From my very first day in office I was subjected to hostile, passive-aggressive bullying from another employee. I later learned they wanted my job prior to my arrival, so there was a clear conflict of interest that NOBODY seemed to pick up on. This employee refused to communicate work issues with me, would intentionally go to my manager (who was often out of office) about issues that fell under my work duties, regularly expressed negative body language to reflect their distaste of me (including turning their back when I entered a room, putting their hand up to their face to avoid seeing me in their peripherals, and other petty mannerisms), sent passive-aggressive messages in the group chat to make me look bad, and was overall extremely cold and uncooperative not only with me, but also with my manager and other employees they deemed "unlikeable". I witnessed them speaking poorly about me while on private calls, including a time where they inferenced beating me up if we weren't in an office. My manager simply laughed it off and called them "dramatic".
For 10 months I pulled myself up and ignored their childish acts to continue my work despite this employee's intentional tirade against me. I shared my issues with my manager and with my contracting company, both of whom recognized and agreed that this employee had seriously pervasive personal issues that needed to be addressed. My manager would regularly share their tiredness of the employee's pettiness, and constantly wished they would be transferred. The other employee ended up having SEVERAL interventions from different managers regarding their horrid behavior, but nothing changed as they refused to take responsibility for their actions.
After 10 months of putting up with this repeated immature behavior, I finally approached a different manager with concerns they were spreading fictitious rumors about me to outside staff. I had witnessed them speaking with said staff on occasion, and had poor interactions post-discussions. I expressed that it made me incredibly anxious coming into work as it felt like I had an invisible target on my back - all because of this vindictive coworker. The manager replied with an apology, stating that I shouldn't feel this way and that they hoped we could reach a point of peaceful collaboration.
3 hours later I received a call that my contract had been terminated. I was completely taken aback by this response, as I'd had completely normal conversations with my manager immediately prior to my message, and otherwise had a completely normal day. In addition, my contract had been extended months prior as my manager was due to be out on leave for the rest of the year.
When attempting to argue my termination, it was uncovered that Affirm had gone into my internal communications AFTER my final complaint in order to find "just cause" and avoid potential legal backfire. According to lawyers I counselled with, this was a case of retaliation, as my complaint was a concern involving my race, and the other employee had expressed extremely skewed social views both in person and online. I later found public social media posts where the employee expressed violence against people of a certain color, and violence against their coworkers. I've already filed an EEOC report, but it takes months to have an initial interview, and I'm tired. The issues brought up as reasons for my firing had occurred within the week prior, had never been brought up to me, and involved topics that other employees spoke about IN THE OPEN.
Affirm's initial response to my first review was to say the concerns of violence in the workplace had been "forwarded to the appropriate parties", and they left a portal link that I could no longer access since I was no longer employed. After submitting an ethics report, it then took them several months to address it, and they communicated NOTHING to me about what transpired from the review. In fact the coworker is STILL THERE, AND they hired a replacement of similar cultural background to cover up the racial undertones of my situation. WOW. In addition, my ex-manager apparently fired another employee for simply being better than they were at their job. Tells you a lot about the people that stay in this company.
If you care about being treated as a human being, and not a statistic or a color, then I strongly advise you to avoid this company at all costs.
